Scar Tissue
by Monroe-Militia
Summary: Bass notices Charlie's M scar and is not impressed. She wonders why he even cares. Charloe.
1. Chapter 1

After they finished fighting off a couple of patriots, Charlie turned to go keep walking, but was immediately stopped by a swift grab to her wrist that pulled her back.

"Come on, we have to go find Miles," Charlie said sternly as she glared back in confusion at Bass.

Her gaze dropped back down to her arm while his grasp on her arm remained firm, digging into her flesh a little.

"Bass stop, we've got to go."

He still remained frozen in place, staring down at her wrist for a few more long moments before he cursed under his breath and flung her arm away as if he could no longer stand to look at it, let alone hold it.

"What the hell is going on with you?" Charlie demanded.

"Your wrist," he responded in an angry tone.

"What?"

"Your wrist! _Look at it!_"

Charlie flinched back as his voice rose to a shout. Once Bass noticed her reaction, he ran a hand through his hair as he turned away from her and began to pace.

Charlie looked down at her wrist and finally realized what his problem was, the scar on her wrist from when the Monroe Militia's 'M' had been branded onto her flesh.

"Oh."

She had grown used to the scar and rarely thought about it or gave her wrist a second glance. She hadn't thought about it much, but it surprised her that Monroe hadn't noticed it before.

"When did you get that?" Bass questioned, seeming to have regained some amount of control over his emotions "_Where_ did you get that?"

"Does it matter?" Charlie challenged.

"Does it matter?" Bass repeated in a tone of disbelief. "Are you joking, Charlie?"

"No. I'm not." She insisted, anger becoming evident in her tone. "Why do you even care?"

"Never mind, let's just go," Bass replied, deflecting the question. "Like you said, we need to go find Miles."

Before she had the chance to say anything else, he'd already walked past her and was moving fast in an attempt to get away from that conversation and to Miles.

Charlie followed behind him, a little slower as she wondered to herself what had provoked such a strong reaction to her scar. She didn't think that Bass was capable of caring about anyone other than himself and Miles...

Could she be wrong?

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! This story is dedicated to tumblr's stairwaytorays because it probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for her suggesting it as a ficlet (and might not be multi-chapter if it weren't for someone anonymously requesting more).  
**


	2. Chapter 2

All day, Charlie hadn't been able to stop thinking about what had happened when Bass had seen her scar. Neither of them had brought it up again, but Charlie couldn't keep it off of her mind and she wondered if Bass was still thinking about it as well.

When Charlie had a minute alone with Bass, she decided to try again to confront him about his reaction.

"Seriously, why does it bother you so much? ...My scar?" She questioned.

"Why _doesn't_ it bother you?" He challenged.

"It did," she responded. "At first... But that wore off quickly and I got used to it. Now, it's a part of me. I hardly even notice it... And when I do, it's a reminder of the past and all that I've overcome."

Bass seemed to consider her words for a few moments before he told her, "No... I don't believe you... That is not some good thing that you're glad you have. That's scar tissue from where _my name_ got branded on you. That mark is there because of _my_ mistakes!"

"You're right. If I had a choice, I would get rid of it," Charlie admitted angrily. "But I don't. And it really doesn't bother me that much. So why the hell does it bother you? Hundreds of other people have these scars too, maybe even thousands. Why does it matter if I have one?"

"We need to keep moving," Bass said, intentionally ignoring her question and practically cutting her question short as he turned to walk away. "We'd better go find your mom and Miles."

"No." Charlie told him in a tone so insistent that it shocked even her as she grabbed his sleeve to stop him from leaving.

"Let go of me," Bass demanded, ripping his arm away so that his sleeve escaped her hold. "I'm not having this conversation."

"Why not?" Charlie called after him as he began to walk away. "Why is it _so_ impossible for you to admit that you care about anyone other than yourself and Miles?"

"Because!" Bass shouted as he stopped in his tracks.

Charlie flinched back from the sudden outburst, but by the time that he had turned back around to face her, she had managed to get her expression under control.

"-Because everyone that I have _ever_ cared about besides Miles has died! ...Even before the blackout. And Miles has come close to dying on me enough times already." Bass finished passionately.

Charlie felt a pang of sympathy, but also a pang of anger at that.

"You think that I don't know about having people that I care about die? ...I've lost a lot of people too, Bass!" Charlie argued back. "And you know what I've learned? That people are going to die. And whether you admit to yourself that you care about them or not, it is still going to hurt like hell. The only difference is that you'll end up regretting being such a major ass afterwards if you don't admit it."

With that, Charlie was done with the conversation and angrily turned to walk away.

Several dragged out seconds passed before she heard Bass's voice come from behind her.

"Maybe I can't admit that I care about you because it would mean that I'm even more sick and twisted than I already know that I am."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Charlie asked in an offended tone as she turned back around to face him.

"It means that by some sick joke, or maybe because I'm just a sadistic bastard who loves torturing himself, I've somehow developed feelings for _you_ of all people," he responded angrily. "After everything that I've done to your family... Even though your mom would love to murder me, I just had to fall for _you_."

Bass turned away and ran a hand through his hair in exasperation before looking back at her.

"Maybe I can't admit that I care about you because that would be admitting that I have feelings for a girl that I used to help babysit before the blackout," Bass continued. "I remember when you used to laugh for five minutes straight whenever I called you Charlotte instead of Charlie. And now you're all that I can think about. How sick is that?"

Charlie stood in a shocked silence for several long seconds. What could she really say to that? How could she argue with his logic, even if she wanted to? Besides, she was still stuck on the part where he apparently used to babysit her with Miles when she was little.

Bass half-turned as if he was going to storm away before he looked back at her like he was trying to make a decision.

He muttered something incoherent under his breath before he began to walk towards her with an air of urgency. If she knew how he felt and how messed up he truly was, then he may as well go all in.

Charlie didn't move to stop him as he closed the distance in between them. She still didn't resist as his hands moved to either side of her face and he brought his lips to hers in a desperate kiss.

In fact, against all reason, Charlie's first instinct was to kiss back.

Their lips hadn't been separated for more than a second or two when they heard Rachel's voice in the distance.

"Charlie, come on!"

Charlie continued to stare into Bass's eyes for a few seconds longer, studying the vulnerable look that she was so unused to seeing from him, before her mom's voice sounded again. This time her voice came from even closer.

"Charlie, where are you?"

Charlie hesitated for a moment longer before she tore her gaze from his by looking down and stepped away from him.

"We're coming!" Charlie shouted back to her mother.

She turned back to look at Bass once more in wonder before she headed towards where her mother's voice had been coming from.

Bass quickly collected himself before he began to follow after her. He didn't know how this one girl managed to get under his skin so much.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! I hope that you guys are liking it so far and thanks for reading. :)  
**


	3. Chapter 3

"Where were you?" Rachel questioned once her daughter came into sight.

"Nowhere," Charlie responded as Bass came into Rachel's sight a few steps behind Charlie. "I was just stretching my legs while we give the horses a break."

With that Charlie walked straight past her mother and towards the wagon without a single glance back. Bass smirked a little at the look of annoyance on Rachel's face as he walked past her.

* * *

As they travelled, Charlie was uncharacteristically quiet as she stared over the side of the wagon off into the distance.

"You're starting to freak me out a little, Charlie," Miles finally commented. "I'm not sure if you've blinked once in the last hour."

She was sitting up front with Miles and quickly turned to glare at him. In the back of the wagon Bass smirked as Aaron slept and Rachel aggressively avoided even looking in Bass's direction or acknowledging his presence.

"Okay, I'm taking that as you don't want to talk," Miles responded in an exaggerated tone. "Someone's in a bad mood."

"I'm not in a bad mood," Charlie told him in a tone that seemed to contradict her words.

She wasn't in a bad mood though… She just also wasn't in an overly chatty mood either. She was confused. She hadn't been expecting Bass to kiss her and now she wasn't sure how she felt.

Okay, that wasn't exactly true either. She was pretty sure of how she felt after a kiss like that, but she hadn't even considered the idea of having something with Bass until the possibility slapped her in the face. Now she wasn't sure what she was going to do. It's not like a relationship with Sebastian Monroe would be easy, especially with her mom and Miles around.

Charlie had been so busy trying to prepare herself for fighting with the Patriots that she had never really stopped to prepare herself for anything else or to look around and pay attention. If she had there would have had to have been at least a few warning signs, wouldn't there?

Her mind was plenty focused on the possibility now. It seemed to be overanalyzing things enough to try and make up for all of the lost time when she hadn't noticed what was apparently right there.

* * *

When they stopped for the night, Charlie's mind was still obsessing over it and replaying everything over and over again.

As she lay on the hard ground, trying to shut her thoughts off, she heard the sound of Aaron snoring a few feet away. She looked over to where her mom and Miles were lying together to find that they too had fallen asleep. Their steady breathing and relaxed faces gave that much away.

She didn't understand how they could sleep. Sure, it had been over an hour since they had set up camp for the night, but still... Charlie was wide awake. It wasn't fair.

The sound of rustling leaves put Charlie on full alert and she shot straight up, already reaching for her weapon. She relaxed a little and brought her arm away from her knife when she saw that it was just Bass rolling over.

She lay back down to try and get some sleep, but her heart was still beating wildly in her chest from that scare.

…If Bass was rolling over that probably meant that he was awake. And it wasn't like she was going to be able to fall asleep any time soon anyways… This might be the only chance that she'd have to talk to him alone for a while…

Charlie sat back up, quietly rose to her feet, and began to move. As she walked, she dodged the sleeping bodies on her way over to Bass.

Once she reached him, she sat down cross-legged next to where he was laying and, as quietly as she could, asked, "Are you awake?"

"Barely," he murmured almost inaudibly.

"I need to talk to you," she told him.

Bass let out a loud groan as his eyes still remained shut.

"You always need to talk to me," he complained. "Can't it wait until morning? I'm tired, Charlie."

"I guess it can wait," she agreed reluctantly.

A lazy smile formed on his lips as he mumbled, "Good."

He was expecting to hear her footsteps walking away, so when he still hadn't a few seconds later he opened one eye to peek over at her.

She was lying beside him on top of the blanket that he had lain over the grass and judging by the look on her face she was about thirty seconds tops from trying to start another conversation.

"What?" He questioned.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean 'what'?"

"You're making a face like you're about to burst if you don't say something," he pointed out.

He still looked at least half-asleep as his hooded eyelids blinked several times a second, struggling to stay open.

"You said to wait until morning," Charlie commented.

"I know," he responded. "But you don't look like you're going to make it that long. And I'm tired. So just say whatever it is now instead of waiting until I'm about to fall asleep again and you can't hold it back."

"Why me?" She asked him.

"What?" He asked, rubbing at one eye with his hand.

His brain wasn't quite awake enough to follow her train of thought. After a second or two he seemed to catch up and a light-bulb went off in his head.

"I don't know," he commented as he half sat up, leaning back on his elbows. "It's not like I planned on falling for you."

"You made that pretty clear," she pointed out.

"You know, for someone who didn't talk for like twelve hours straight, you sure have a lot to say now," he retorted. "I mean I get that you were speechless after the kiss, but I think that's a new record."

Charlie let out a small laugh as she shoved him roughly in the shoulder.

"Or maybe I don't even talk that much and you're just terrible at communicating," she challenged.

"Probably that one," he admitted with an innocent shrug, almost reasonably awake now. "I'm not like you, Charlie. Not anymore. I used to be able to talk about feelings and all that… Probably most with Miles, but that was before he left... You get kind of bad at trusting people or letting them in when you're best friend leaves you and basically everyone you trusted turns on you."

"I don't know," Charlie told him as a teasing smile began to tug at her lips. "You're not doing _completely_ terrible at it right now."

She could see that Bass was clearly still tired, so she decided to let him sleep as she rolled to lie on her other side.

Bass moved closer to her and when she didn't move away or protest to that, he wrapped an arm over her waist. His hand landed over her right arm.

A minute or two passed as they lay in a comfortable silence while Bass traced lazy patterns along her flesh before his fingers found themselves over her scar tissue. He paused for a moment before he resumed his movements, hesitantly tracing over it with his thumb.

"I'm sorry, Charlie," he murmured by her ear as he let his hand fall away from her wrist and onto the blanket instead.

She didn't say anything in response. Instead she just moved her hand over to his, intertwining their fingers.

* * *

A/N: Please read and review! :) A huge thanks goes out to LemonSupreme, perfectmanhatten, BassCharlie, JM2788, decadenceofmysoul, Dee809, Wolf9lucky, bruz, marissa, neverthereb4, IceonFire7, Lady Krystalyn, Laura, and the two anonymous guests for reviewing the last chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

Bass woke up to someone kicking him roughly in the leg.

"What?" He grumbled out in an annoyed tone as he felt Charlie stir beside him.

He was still too half-asleep to realize that there was something wrong with being found all cuddled up to her.

After a few seconds of silence, Bass looked up to find Miles standing over them with the sun shining blindingly behind him.

"What do you want, Miles?" Bass groaned as he brought a hand up to block the sun from his eyes.

He was definitely sleep-deprived from Charlie's middle of the night talk the night before.

"You two might want to separate before Rachel or Aaron wake up," Miles told them as Charlie rolled onto her back to look up at him. He smirked a little as he added, "Unless you're interested in getting murdered today."

"What? You're not going to kill me?" Bass questioned with the slightest smirk as he and Charlie sat up.

"I think I've already tried enough times," Miles responded.

"It's really just starting to get embarrassing for you," Charlie added with a smirk.

"Exactly."

* * *

As they travelled for the day, Charlie and Bass weren't sitting together on the wagon or chatting or anything, but they did exchange quite a few lingering glances.

When the wagon stopped for a break, Bass went to go stretch his legs and Charlie opted to go with him.

As soon as they were a safe distance away, she turned and grabbed the front of his shirt to pull him towards her until their lips were pressed together.

As they kissed, one of her hands remained on his chest while her other arm wrapped around his neck, her hand sliding down the back of his shirt.

"You know, when you followed me I was expecting you to have some new question that you've been waiting all day to ask," he told her when he came up for air for a moment. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Well now that you mention it..." Charlie said with a teasing grin.

She cracked a laugh at the look on his face.

"I'm kidding," she told him before pressing her lips back against his.

* * *

When they walked back over to the wagon together a few minutes later, Miles shot them both a smug look. He wanted them to know that he could plainly see that they had run off for some alone time together.

Charlie shot him a glare in response as she climbed back up onto the wagon.

* * *

When they stopped for the night, Rachel instantly walked over to Miles and told him, "I need to talk to you."

Miles could tell by her tone that she meant actually talking as he followed her off a little ways away into the line of trees surrounding their camp for the night.

* * *

"I'm not afraid of my mom, if you aren't," Charlie commented to Bass as she watched Aaron setting up his bed for the night.

While it may have been a bit of an exaggeration for Bass to say that he wasn't at all afraid of Rachel, since she was a bit of a wild cannon, he wasn't going to admit that to Charlie.

"You're worth facing the wrath of a Matheson for," he told her. "Even the wrath of your mom."

* * *

Charlie set her blanket down with Bass's and then they laid down together. He lay on his back as she snuggled up to his side.

Less than ten seconds passed before Aaron questioned, "What are you doing, Charlie?"

"Go to bed, Aaron," she responded without opening her eyes.

"Really? You expect me to just go to sleep and pretend that you aren't cuddled up to Monroe of all people?" Aaron asked her in a tone of disbelief.

"You can pretend or not," she told him. "Just let me get some sleep."

She nuzzled her face further into Bass's shoulder as if she could hide herself from the conversation.

"Now you know how I felt last night when I was trying to sleep and you thought it was the perfect time for a serious conversation," Bass mumbled out to her.

"Last night?" Aaron asked, still completely flabbergasted by the entire situation. "How long has whatever this is been going on?"

Charlie decided to try a new strategy of ignoring Aaron with the hope that he would just give up for the night.

It didn't work out very well for her.

"Okay, am I going insane? Was I drugged up and I'm hallucinating right now? What are you thinking, Charlie?" Aaron continued. "Rachel's going to kill you both. You do realize that, don't you?"

"I was planning on being asleep by the time that she got back," Bass grumbled out angrily. "And if you don't shut your mouth pretty soon, I'm going to come over there and rip your vocal chords out and then feed them to you."

Charlie shifted her arm so that she could elbow Bass hard in the gut.

"Hey, what was that for?" He complained.

"You can't just threaten Aaron like that," she told him in an annoyed tone.

"Okay, sorry," he muttered defensively.

"Better," Charlie said, smiling into the fabric of his shirt.

"Okay, hold on. Did Monroe just apologize for something?" Aaron questioned loudly. "What did you do to him, Charlie? ...Someone had better start giving me answers now or-"

Charlie cut him off as she sat up to glare at him and warned him, "Seriously, Aaron. Just stop talking. I'm trying to sleep and if you don't shut up, I'm going to have to get up to come over there and kick your ass."

Aaron raised his hands in a sign of innocence as he silently decided to let Rachel handle whatever it was that was going on here once she got back.

"Fine," he gave in. "I'll stop talking."

"Good," Charlie said as she set her head back down on Bass.

"You can't just threaten Aaron like that, Charlie," Bass taunted, using her own words against her.

"You shut up too."

* * *

"There's something going on between Charlie and Monroe, isn't there?" Rachel questioned in a pained tone.

She'd seen the way that they had been exchanging glances all day. And she wasn't thrilled by the way that they had been disappearing together whenever the wagon stopped for a few minutes during the last two days.

Miles shrugged, avoiding giving her an answer that was too direct.

"Tell me the truth, Miles," Rachel demanded. "I'm not blind; I know there's something going on. You know Bass better than anyone. I'm sure you figured it out before I did, so how long? How long has this, whatever this is, been going on for?"

"I don't think she's known about it for long, but he's had feelings for her for a while," Miles admitted. "But I think I probably figured that out before he did."

"I'm going to kill him," Rachel insisted definitively.

"No, you're not," Miles said in a tone of exasperation.

"Why not?" She demanded.

"Because you know what that would do to Charlie after everything," Miles pointed out and then his voice came out a lot more mumbled as he added, "And you know what that would do to me too."

"So then what do you expect me to do?" Rachel questioned. "I can't just sit here and do nothing about it."

"This might just pass after a few days," Miles told her, more for her benefit than because he really believed it. "But if you yell at her non-stop and get all pissed off about them being together, then you're just going to push her closer to him. Don't you remember how well that worked when Gene tried to keep you away from me?"

"Fine," Rachel gave in. "I won't do anything for now, but I'm certainly not going to be supporting her decision to be with him."

* * *

When Charlie heard footsteps coming, she looked up to see Miles and her mom walking together.

Rachel looked over at where Charlie was laying with her head resting on Monroe and forced herself to turn her gaze away before she could react.

Once Rachel had walked past with a blank look on her face, Miles shot his niece a quick wink that she responded to with a grin.

Aaron began to question whether he had really lost his mind or not as he watched Rachel lay down next to Miles without so much as acknowleding the fact that her daughter was snuggled up to Monroe.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Also a huge thanks goes out to JM2788, LemonSupreme, samanthalininger, neverthereb4, IceonFire7, Daedalos, and driver picks the music for reviewing last chapter :)**


	5. Chapter 5

Charlie woke up the next morning and shifted a little to get comfortable, snuggling up a little closer to Bass.

"Charlie?" Bass asked, his voice quiet in case she was really still asleep.

Charlie opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him, finding that his lips were just inches away from hers.

"Yeah?" She responded.

"I can't feel my arm," he told her.

"Sorry," Charlie murmured out as she moved off of where she had been lying on his arm all night to lie a little farther away. "Better?"

Bass nodded as he felt a cold sensation run down his still tingling arm.

He grinned a little to himself as he looked over at her. After all that he had done wrong, what the hell had he done to deserve Charlie? He wasn't sure, but he didn't plan on losing her the way he had everything else.

"What?" Charlie asked him with a small smile of her own when she noticed the look on his face.

"Nothing," he responded with a shake of his head.

Charlie didn't seem to believe him, but she didn't get the chance to point that out before he was kissing her.

She brought a hand up to pull him closer and he rolled so that his body was hovering over hers as they continued to kiss.

"I'm awake," Miles pointed out loudly after a few minutes had passed and it was clear that they weren't going to stop on their own. "So if you two could keep it PG-13 over there, that would be great."

Bass brought his lips away from Charlie's and let out a laugh as he turned to look over his shoulder at Miles.

"What does PG-13 mean?" Charlie asked in a confused tone as she half sat up with Bass still partially on top of her laughing. "Is that some kind of dorky code that you two made up?"

"No, I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that it's some kind of dorky code for anyone who's ever seen a movie," Miles retorted with a smug smirk as Bass finally rolled off of Charlie.

"I've seen movies," Charlie defended herself.

"I know," Miles admitted. "I've seen Toy Story more times than I'd like to admit thanks to you."

"I still don't know what PG-13 means though," she insisted, not enjoying being the only one in the conversation that didn't know what was going on.

"It means keep your clothes on," Miles explained. As Charlie immediately shot a glare in his direction, Miles had to smirk as he added, "I'm already scarred enough from walking in on Bass."

"That was your fault," Bass immediately defended himself. "There was an obvious warning and you just ignored it. Besides, I'm definitely more scarred than you are from that time in high school-"

"Bass. Shut up." Miles threatened in his gruffest tone.

"You remember that time, don't you?" Bass continued, seeming quite amused with himself. "When I made the mistake of walking into your room unannounced right when you were-"

"Fine, you're more scarred. Are you happy? Now shut up or I _will _kill you," Miles threatened.

"No you won't," Bass pointed out smugly.

Aaron woke up then. He sat up and was less than thrilled to find Monroe smirking over at Miles from where he was lying next to Charlie.

"Great," he muttered out sarcastically. "So it wasn't just a nightmare... Either I've lost my mind or everyone else has."

"Oh, good," Bass grumbled just as sarcastically. "Stay Puft's awake."

Charlie turned and glared at him for that.

"What?" Bass complained. "It's not like I'm threatening him... Currently."

"That's great," Aaron responded sarcastically. "That's a real nice boyfriend you've got there Charlie... I liked Neville's kid a hell of a lot better."

"I think we all liked Nipples better," Miles commented.

Charlie rolled her eyes at that as she remembered just how much they had disapproved of her trusting Jason. But of course they would claim to have liked him better as soon as she was with someone else...

And okay, maybe that someone else was Monroe, but things were more than a little complicated now that he had decided to help fight the Patriots and joined the good side. Besides, the world was already messed up enough, so she figured that if she could find someone who was on the right side of things now and who she had feelings for, whether those feelings were logical or not, that it was the best that she could really hope for in their current reality.

"He's saved both of your asses, hasn't he?" Charlie challenged Aaron and her uncle. "So neither of you are really in any position to preach about how bad he is."

Rachel, who had woken up at the sound of Aaron's loud voice, forced herself to keep her mouth shut as she glared over at Bass, who currently looked like Christmas had come early for him.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A giant thanks goes out to LemonSupreme, dixie326, 00sonrisa00, samanthalininger, JM2788, driver picks the music, BassCharlie, Dee809, theresatmunoz, Estel la Rodeuse, and the anonymous guest for being awesome and reviewing last chapter! :)  
**


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